Causes and predictors of unplanned hospital readmission in inflammatory bowel disease patients

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disease that involves Ulcerative colitis and Crohn‘s disease. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease experience frequent admissions to the hospital. Readmission carries a potential burden to the health care system and negative impacts on the patients. Readmissions can be reduced by identifying the causing factors. The present study aimed at identifying the reasons for readmission in adult patients with IBD at King Abdullah Medical City Specialist Hospital, Makkah, Saudi Arabia (KAMC). Methods: A retrospective cohort study enrolled adult patients with confirmed IBD. The collected data included patients' demographics, co-morbidities, laboratory tests, type of inflammatory bowel disease, number of readmissions in one week, three months, six months, and per year, reasons for readmission, intervention, and outcomes. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21 was used to analyze the collected data. Results: A total of 247 IBD patients were included; 58.3% had Crohn's disease, and 41.7% had UC. There were 84.2% reported 1-2 times readmissions. Abdominal pain and diarrhoea were the major causes of admission in the first readmission (73.7%, 58.7%, respectively), second readmission (30.8%, 17.4%, respectively), third admission (12.6%, 9.7%, respectively), and fourth admission (8.5%, 7.3%, respectively). Conclusion: There were various causes of hospital readmissions among IBD patients, yet the major and most common causes of readmission among the four studied readmissions were abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The least common reasons varied between the different readmissions.